Psychiatry as a means of coercion in the former USSR

In the summer of 2013 Human Rights in Mental Health-FGIp Chief Executive Robert van Voren finalized a report for the European parliament on the use of psychiatry as a means of coercion in former Soviet republics. He signalled a disturbing trend in particular in the Russian Federation, where an increasing number of opponents of the ruling government were threatened with psychiatric detention or hospitalized for short periods as a means of coercion.